Congressional Oversight Sought Over HHS Autism Misinformation

In the first year of the second Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., replaced all members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) with advisers known for anti-vaccine and pseudoscientific positions. HHS promoted a September announcement linking prenatal acetaminophen (Tylenol) use to autism and touted leucovorin, a B vitamin, as an autism treatment despite FDA approval limited to a rare folate deficiency. At the same time, HHS cut autism-research funding by roughly $31 million, removed warnings about unproven autism therapies from the FDA website, and issued reduction-in-force notices that resulted in widespread layoffs.

The Guardian

The administration’s focus on vaccines and autism intensified after budget hearings in which Kennedy suggested that home-health aides might be defrauding the government. These remarks preceded a series of actions that reshaped public-health messaging, including the cancellation and later low-profile rescheduling of the IACC’s first meeting.

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• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – HHS Secretary, architect of the policy changes.

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• Zoe Gross – Director of Advocacy, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN).

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• Shannon Rosa – Senior editor, Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism.

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• Jay Bhattacharya – Acting director, CDC, announced a national autism registry.

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• American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) – Co-publisher of the oversight report.

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• April 2025 – Kennedy’s budget-hearing remarks on home-health aides.

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• September 2025 – HHS announcement linking acetaminophen to autism; promotion of leucovorin.

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• March 2026 – IACC meeting postponed indefinitely.

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• April 2026 – IACC meeting rescheduled with minimal publicity; CDC announces autism registry.

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• Autism-research budget reduced by approximately $31 million.

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• Orders for Tylenol in emergency rooms for pregnant patients declined after the September announcement.

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ASAN and AAPD describe the actions as “harmful to its mission” and “detrimental to the autistic community,” eroding trust in health agencies and potentially influencing medical decisions for pregnant individuals and families of autistic people.

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• An HHS spokesperson confirmed the FDA will update acetaminophen’s safety label to warn of “prenatal exposures and child development.”

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• CDC acting director Jay Bhattacharya announced the creation of a national autism registry.

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• The FDA clarified that leucovorin is approved only for a rare folate deficiency, not for autism treatment.

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ASAN and AAPD released a joint report calling for congressional oversight hearings and suggesting impeachment of HHS officials for alleged dereliction of duty. Critics highlighted the replacement of the IACC, the promotion of discredited treatments, and the lack of corrective action on earlier misinformation.

The Guardian

HHS has not retracted the September statements linking acetaminophen to autism, while emerging research cited by critics indicates no causal link. The administration’s silence on these findings creates a gap between official messaging and current scientific consensus.

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• “When you look at it, one thing after another, you can really realize how overwhelming it has been for those of us who are in the autism trenches trying to combat this misinformation and stigmatizing language and these bad decisions, as well as how dedicated this government is to spreading misinformation and to pursuing policies that damage public health,” — Zoe Gross, ASAN

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• “These are the talking points that we can take to our community members. These are the talking points that we can take to our county, state, city administrators and push back and say, ‘We don’t want this to happen.’” — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS Secretary

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• “They let the misinformation that they have already disseminated stand and continue to do harm.” — Zoe Gross, ASAN

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• “We’d really like to see Congress hold RFK Jr and HHS broadly to account for everything they’ve done over this past year that has been so harmful to the autistic community and to public health generally, with oversight hearings,” — Zoe Gross, ASAN

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• “If, for example, RFK Jr is found in those hearings to have been derelict in his duty as secretary, then Congress should impeach him.” — Zoe Gross, ASAN

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ASAN and AAPD urge Congress to convene oversight hearings on HHS’s autism policies, evaluate the pending FDA label change, and consider impeachment proceedings if dereliction is confirmed. The FDA’s label update and the CDC’s autism registry are slated for implementation later in 2026.

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